Allison Franks (Hobbit.Town Jewelry)

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Raw Austin Presents Marvel Art Show in Retrospect

As you all know, for the last month I've been raising money and accepting donations so I could participate in the recent RAW Austin Presents Marvel art show. And thanks to my beloved family, friends, and etsy fans I was able to reach my goal just in the nick of time! I was beyond ecstatic when I reached my goal and officially found out I could participate in the show last Thursday April 18th and still am! Seriously, thank you all so much! I couldn't have done this without you. You have no idea how much I appreciate your love and support.

And now it's the moment you've all been waiting for! So I'm going to stop building this up and start spilling the beans! ;)

I'm going to start out by saying.. I was extremely nervous the day of the show! At the beginning of the day, I was so focused on making as many more items as possible that we ended up arriving a little later to Austin than I would have liked to set up. Plus, the wind was insane when we arrived so that didn't help things either. In the midst of all that, I was pulled aside to do some professional photos (which turned out great!) and I can't wait to have delivered to me in a few weeks. Some are of just me and others are me with my work. The guy was flashing like a madman and I only saw two of them, but those looked great so I'm sure the other ones will to. Around the same time, I also got pulled aside to do a video interview. Now, I have NEVER done one of these before and am extremely weird around cameras... so on top of being stressed AND nervous I gotta say it didn't go too well. I'm hoping that I'm just over-reacting and the final product won't be as bad as I imagine... but I can't help but worry. I'm not very good with on the spot answers and I really wasn't prepared for a lot of those questions even though I know I probably should have been. Of course, I thought of the PERFECT answers later on after the interview... but not much can be done about that now! I'm trying to stay positive though and I keep reminding myself of what my mom told me later, "Just think of it as a practice run. If it sucks at least you can learn from your mistakes and know what to say next time." You know, I think she might have a point there. ;)

Anyways, after all that crazy stuff was finished I went back to my booth to finish setting up. During all this my AMAZING boyfriend Marcus was doing his very best to get everything arranged. He's really the best!

Just look at him!

I'm so unbelievably thankful that he could come out and help me. I really don't think I could have done it without him! There was a CRAZY amount of people coming by to look pretty much 24/7 so it would have been impossible to keep up with everyone on my own. Plus, he had my back when the wind came or if anyone looked "suspicious" (haha). And I gotta say he pimped that shit! It's funny, but he might even be better at selling than me. No joke. I was really surprised and happy about it. I'm really sociable once I get talking, but sometimes it's hard for me to push stuff on people. But he was there to back me up and it was great. I really got an awesome fella, did you know that? ;)

Anyways, the show went really well! By far the best one I've ever had and hopefully not the last. I made lots of sales, got lots of compliments and had plenty of people sign up for my upcoming giveaway at the end of the month. My only complaint was that as it got dark it was really hard to see my stuff! I actually broke out my phone a few times for "extra lighting". The venue said they'd provide lighting...which they did... but it wasn't very bright. That really didn't stop people from looking though. It's just that ALL the photos I took at the event are VERY dark. I forgot my real camera and had to use my phone.. so I apologize in advance.

Here's a few close up photos of my booth set up. I actually had two tables this time which worked out really nice. Helped me spread out more and showcase more products you know?

It's sad, but I didn't really get a chance to see much else of the event. Of course I did a quick walk through of the venue and checked out all the other artist's work/items, but I didn't get to catch much of anything else. I suppose I heard all of the live music.. just didn't actually see anyone perform. I just couldn't leave the table! That's how many people were there. It was like nonstop traffic which is awesome! I've never experienced that before, but it was a lot of fun. And I know I made a lot of ladies and gents REALLY happy.

This girl literally screamed when she saw my Sailor Moon necklace which put a HUGE smile on my face.

My Sailor Moon stuff was actually a big seller! And you know how I love my Sailor Moon... so I was beaming pretty much the whole night. It was just so awesome to see so many other fans all in one place! :)

And this girl went cuckoo for my xbox necklace. It was so cute!!

Probably my favorite customer of the night was this girl right here. She bought a lot of stuff and is actually going to hook me up with the local roller derby team in Austin. That's right. You guessed it!! I'm going to start making roller derby jewelry to sell at the Austin bouts. OMG excitement!! She totally rocked my eyeball sunflower too. How cool is that??

It's funny but we totally had a good 5 minute convo about The Cramps as she was trying to pay me for it too. And I'm so jealous that she got to see them live! No fair.

Overall RAW was a HUGE success for me and I look forward to possibly participating in another RAW event sometime in the future. And as you can clearly see I had A LOT of fun too! I met some really awesome people and got several exciting leads for selling my stuff locally in Austin! So that was worth it on it's own. I was totally EXHAUSTED by the time we got out though. Honestly, it didn't really hit me until I sat down. But we toughed it out and drove the 40 minute drive home.

I don't think I could have done it without greasy Steak n Shake burgers though! Yum yum!

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About Me

Hi there! My name is Allison Franks and I'm a craftoholic. (No, seriously)
I live for art, adventure, comics, and travel. But most of all I'm hopelessly addicted to creating totally bizarre jewelry that'll make people turn around and say, "Are those babies in frying pans on your ears?".
So I guess you could say I'm a 20-something small business owner living in Austin,TX with a BA in Anthropology. And I guess you could say I'm quite happy about that. But all that really matters is that I'm having the time of my life just being me!
If you'd like to learn more about me please add me as a friend! -
www.hobbittownjewelry.etsy.com www.facebook.com/hobbittown.jewelry